FILE - In this Thursday, April 18, 2013 file photo, emergency personnel search the rubble of an apartment destroyed by an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. Event after nail-biting event, America was rocked this week, in rare and frightening ways, with what felt like an unremitting series of tragedies.

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Modern media has made tragedy inescapable
Moment after nail-biting moment, the events shoved us through a week that felt like an unremitting series of tragedies: Deadly bombs. Poison letters. A town shattered by a colossal explosion. A violent manhunt that paralyzed a major city, emptying streets of people and filling them with heavily armed police and piercing sirens.